Beijing, 23 September, 2026 (Ghufran): China’s ambassador to the United States has warned that Beijing has “red lines” on Taiwan, human rights and other issues that cannot be crossed ahead of this week’s planned meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump in Washington. Ambassador Xie Feng said China’s sovereignty, security and development interests must be respected, identifying Taiwan, democracy and human rights, development paths and systems, and development rights as four issues that cannot be challenged. Writing in the Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, Xie said managing differences between China and the United States requires good faith and urged Washington to avoid using national security, economic imbalances and forced labour as pretexts to constrain China. He said cooperation between the two countries benefits both sides, while confrontation harms both. A separate commentary in the newspaper attributed recent difficulties in bilateral relations to what it described as erroneous US perceptions of China and continued strategic competition. The commentary urged both sides to maintain the current momentum in relations, while calling on Washington to ensure policy continuity, honour its commitments and bring greater stability to bilateral ties.